<BR><small>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</small><P><B>The passion and the beauty</B> <BR>BY DUNBAR ANNA for The Christchurch Press - New Zealand<P><BR>The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Royal New Zealand Ballet, February 22, New Zealand Festival 2002, Wellington. Reviewed by Anna Dunbar. (The Hunchback of Notre Dame will have a season at the Theatre Royal, Christchurch, from March 21 to 24.)<P>Ballet can entertain. It can uplift and inspire. Sometimes it can disappoint or confuse, but it seldom produces tears.<P>The passion and the beauty of the Royal New Zealand Ballet's production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame left many in the audience hastily wiping their eyes as the dancers took their bows.<P>Although most people would recognise "the bells, the bells" and the deformed bellringer Quasimodo, a close familiarity with Victor Hugo's tale is probably unnecessary to enjoy the ballet.<P><A HREF="http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=020227007907&query=ballet" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><P>

<B>Dramatic dance of love and tragedy</B> <BR>04.03.2002 The New Zealand Herald<BR>The choreographer who brought Dracula to town is back with another Gothic tale, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. BERNADETTE RAE talks to Michael Pink. <P>English choreographer Michael Pink is carving a fine career from the dark side of human nature, hamming up its rawest passions, its most deviant lusts and its most awful desperation. <P>First there was Dracula, which left the Royal New Zealand Ballet's coffers, accountants and audiences quite satiated in 2000. Now he is back, with The Hunchback of Notre Dame, delivering a second dramatic dose of Gothic gloom and tragedy in a succinct but loyal account of Victor Hugo's classic story. <P>After debuting the production in Wellington at the New Zealand Festival, the Royal New Zealand Ballet brings Hunchback to Auckland this week. <P><A HREF="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/entertainmentstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=1090595&thesection=entertainment&thesubsection=arts&thesecondsubsection=general" TARGET=_blank><B>More</B></A> <BR><p>[This message has been edited by Malcolm Tay (edited March 04, 2002).]

<B>Ballet bells</B> <BR>First Dracula; now the Hunchback: choreographer Michael Pink talks to ANNA DUNBAR for The Christchurch Press - New Zealand<P><BR>Wrapped in a whirlwind of emotions and drama, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo's tale of love, lust, obsession, and betrayal, is being brought to life through dance.<P>British choreographer and director Michael Pink, who dazzled New Zealand audiences with Dracula in 2000, has returned to work with the Royal New Zealand Ballet on Hugo's torrid tale about Quasimodo and his love for Esmeralda.<P>Pink says the familiarity from working together before has been of mutual benefit. "Having done Dracula together has given both the company and me a head start. It was easier this time to cast the ballet as I could visualise certain dancers in roles.<P><A HREF="http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=020306007897&query=ballet" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><P>

<B>The Hunchback of Notre Dame at the Civic Theatre</B> <P>08.03.2002 By BERNADETTE RAE <BR>The New Zealand Herald<P>Since when did a gang of medieval street people take so much time out from their fighting, mead-swilling and rude couplings to point their toes? There seems to be an abundance of arabesques and other formalities in Michael Pink's choreography of this Hunchback of Notre Dame, or at least step-making, which is intrusive. <P>The effect is especially strange as Pink's great claim is to strip away all curlicues and bits of dance just for dance's sake and to make every movement vital to "The Story". <P>Perhaps this story, so raw and cruel and full of violent lust and ghastly vengeance is just too difficult to tell perfectly in point shoes? <P><A HREF="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/entertainmentstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=1190391&thesection=entertainment&thesubsection=arts&thesecondsubsection=reviews" TARGET=_blank><B>More</B></A><BR>

<B>Dance doesn't always have to appeal to little ones in tutus</B> <BR>John Daly-Peoples <BR>The National Business Review, New Zealand<P><BR><small>Hunchback of Notre Dame, performed by the Royal new Zealand Ballet, at the Aotea Centre</small> <P>Hunchback follows in the tradition of Dracula, which seemed likely to change the face of ballet and create new audiences. Hunchback may be in the same mould but it doesn't have the same energy and power. <P>One of the problems may be that the story of the Hunchback is too complicated for a dance plot. Four men after the one girl is a bit confusing especially when there doesn't seem to be any point to their quest. <P><A HREF="http://www.nbr.co.nz/home/column_article.asp?id=1961&cid=6&cname=Arts" TARGET=_blank><B>More</B></A><BR>

<B>Ballet strikes stunning chord</B> <BR>BY ROBERTSON GREER in The Christchurch Press - New Zealand<P><BR>The Hunchback of Notre Dame, performed by the Royal NZ Ballet. Choreographer/ director, Michael Pink; composer, Philip Feeney. Theatre Royal, Christchurch, March 21st. Duration; 2 hours 10 minutes. Reviewed by Greer Robertson.<P>Avid theatre-goers will doubtless recall Michael Pink's previous smash attraction Dracula in 2000, which was truly a sensation in the world of live entertainment.<P>Pink has returned from London to mount Victor Hugo's Hunchback, and those who experienced both Dracula and Hunchback cannot help but compare. This time the even more complex emotional journey was dramatically encapsulated -- love, obsession, hatred, repulsion, longing, grief.<P><A HREF="http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=020322007679&query=ballet" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A>

<B>Dance around the world</B> <BR>Internationally renowned ballet dancer and artist Martin James has worked with Rudolf Nureyev but was once a sporty Christchurch lad. He talks to ANNA DUNBAR about dancing, art, cooking, and being a Kiwi.BY DUNBAR ANNA for The Christchurch Press - New Zealand<P><BR>Internationally successful Christchurch-born dancer Martin James vividly remembers the day he was accepted into the New Zealand School of Dance.<P>He was playing hockey with other students at Riccarton High School when the principal came running onto the pitch. "He was waving his arms about, and yelling excitedly, `Martin, Martin, you've made it into the ballet school'. It was so embarrassing."<P>James, who went on to become principal dancer with the Royal New Zealand Ballet, the English National Ballet, and the Deutsche Opera Ballet, and is now principal dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet, says he was never much interested in dance as a youngster. <P><A HREF="http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=020403008428&query=ballet" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><BR>

The RNZB to bring Russell Kerr's <I>Swan Lake</I> to China. Report in The New Zealand Herald:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>The Royal New Zealand Ballet is to perform Swan Lake in China in its first big international tour in almost a decade. <P>The month-long tour in August and September will visit eight centres, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. <P>General manager Sue Paterson said the tour was a "wonderful opportunity for the dancers and a chance to develop the profile of the company offshore". <P>The company is touring New Zealand with Swan Lake, choreographed by Russell Kerr and designed by New Zealand-born Kristian Fredrikson.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> <P><A HREF="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/entertainmentstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=2045504&thesection=entertainment&thesubsection=arts&thesecondsubsection=general" TARGET=_blank><B>More</B></A><BR>

<P>Report on the RNZB's <I>Swan Lake</I> in Auckland, in The New Zealand Herald:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><B>Spellbound by Swan Lake</B> <P>17.06.2002 By BERNADETTE RAE <P>Mention the word "ballet" and most people think of Swan Lake. Mention Swan Lake to people in the ballet world — and the memories come flooding. <P>It is the ballet with everything that makes classical dance endlessly magical: enchanting young lovers stalked by evil and inevitably doomed, but together forever in their mistily swirling lake ... fluffy white tutus in sylvan glades ... the pageantry, pomp and richness of a right Royal court ... music of magnificent familiarity, of course, by Tchaikovsky. <P>And the Royal New Zealand Ballet's production goes for it in all its traditional splendour — not a bald head or crossdressing boy in sight, as some of the wildest contemporary readings of the work have seen it.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> <P><A HREF="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/entertainmentstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=2046991&thesection=entertainment&thesubsection=arts&thesecondsubsection=general" TARGET=_blank><B>More</B></A><BR>

Review of the RNZB's performance of Russell Kerr's <I>Swan Lake</I> in The New Zealand Herald. Seems to be quite a success:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><B><I>Swan Lake</I> at the Aotea Centre</B> <P>21.06.2002 By BERNADETTE RAE <P>The Royal New Zealand Ballet, our national ballet company, usually excels in the more contemporary works in its repertoire, but in this Swan Lake it knocks the socks off the most classical of all the classical ballets. <P>From a stunning pair in the principal roles to the youngest dancer in the corps, Auckland's opening-night performance was simply wonderful, breathing warmth, passion and spine-tingling life into one of the best-known dance stories of all time.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> <P><A HREF="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/entertainmentstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=2047752&thesection=entertainment&thesubsection=arts&thesecondsubsection=reviews" TARGET=_blank><B>More</B></A><BR>

<B>Carmen at the Aotea Centre</B> 06.12.2002 By BERNADETTE RAE New Zealand Herald

The choreography of Didy Veldman, creator of this sexy, South American Carmen, is sensuous and snaky, exuberant and explosive, passionate and piquant and the dancers of the Royal New Zealand Ballet step right up to its mark.

Dance of the femme fatale By John Daly-Peoples for The National Business review

There have been several versions of Carmen over the years and each one explores different aspects of the story. The Royal New Zealand Ballet's latest take on the tale is the UK's Northern Ballet work devised by Didy Veldman, which focuses on the sexual and sensual dimensions of the four interconnected lovers.

One of the crucial moments of the Carmen story, which Bizet never managed to handle and is glossed over in this production, is providing an explanation for José's falling for Carmen, which sets in train a series of disasters. The myth of the Carmen story is that they fall in love with each other but the Bizet libretto has her announcing she is bored and has no boyfriend, she is at a loose end and her heart is for the taking. José's lustful commitment to her and his subsequent descent into infatuation and jealousy is never really explored.

<B>Tutus on Tour at the Bruce Mason Centre</B> 10.03.2003 By BERNADETTE RAE The New Zealand Herald

There is something for everyone in this gorgeous touring programme and the Royal New Zealand Ballet again show the breadth of their talent and the depth of their skills in its most splendid performance.

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